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Plant-Based Medicines for Anxiety Disorders, Part 1

Research in the area of herbal psychopharmacology
has revealed a variety of promising medicines that
may provide benefit in the treatment of general anxiety and
specific anxiety disorders. However, a comprehensive
review of plant-based anxiolytics has been absent to date.
This article (part 1) reviews herbal medicines for which
only preclinical investigations for anxiolytic activity have
been performed. In part 2, we review herbal medicines for
which there have been clinical investigations for anxiolytic
activity. An open-ended, language-restricted (English)
search of MEDLINE (PubMed), CINAHL, Scopus and the
Cochrane Library databases was conducted (up to 28
October 2012) using specific search criteria to identify
herbal medicines that have been investigated for anxiolytic
activity. This search of the literature revealed 1,525 papers,
from which 53 herbal medicines were included in the full
review (having at least one study using the whole plant
extract). Of these plants, 21 had human clinical trial evidence
(reviewed in part 2), with another 32 having solely
preclinical studies (reviewed here in part 1). Preclinical
evidence of anxiolytic activity (without human clinical
trials) was found for Albizia julibrissin, Sonchus oleraceus,
Uncaria rhynchophylla, Stachys lavandulifolia, Cecropia
glazioui, Magnolia spp., Eschscholzia californica, Erythrina
spp., Annona spp., Rubus brasiliensis, Apocynum
venetum, Nauclea latifolia, Equisetum arvense, Tilia spp.,
Securidaca longepedunculata, Achillea millefolium, Leea
indica, Juncus effusus, Coriandrum sativum, Eurycoma
longifolia, Turnera diffusa, Euphorbia hirta, Justicia spp.,
Crocus sativus, Aloysia polystachya, Albies pindrow,
Casimiroa edulis, Davilla rugosa, Gastrodia elata, Sphaerathus
indicus, Zizyphus jujuba and Panax ginseng. Common
mechanisms of action for the majority of botanicals
reviewed primarily involve GABA, either via direct
receptor binding or ionic channel or cell membrane modulation;
GABA transaminase or glutamic acid decarboxylase
inhibition; a range of monoaminergic effects; and
potential cannabinoid receptor modulation. Future research
should focus on conducting human clinical trials on the
plants reviewed with promising anxiolytic activity.